Hawaii Part 1: Kauai

Day 1: Doing a couples only Hawaii trip was something that my family has been talking about for several years. Covid pushed it back, but we finally made it happen! We left our kids with Matt's aunt and uncle that he's very close to, but it was still awkward all around since they don't know our kids very well and vice versa. They have a very fun backyard though with a swimming pool, pickle ball court, tennis court, ping pong table, and zip line. Inside they have a mini arcade room, and Caleb was excited to practice the piano on a grand piano all week. We are so grateful for their generosity in watching over our boys all week. It was a huge stress of finding someone to do that job. Matt's mom came out a few different nights and made dinner for everyone. Uncle Sid organized a home run derby that my boys loved. Overall, they had a great week and behaved well for them. I know it was a disruption to Sid and Marilyn's lives though.

The flight to Hawaii went well. It was the largest plane I have ever been on. Moving vehicles put me to sleep, so I napped several times, watched a movie, and finished my book. Unfortunately when we landed, we found out our luggage never made it on the plane. Fortunately we packed all our necessities in our carry-on luggage. There were a few things that we missed though as we waited for our luggage to arrive. (It took 3 days.)

After getting our car rentals, we did some sight-seeing. One of the quick stops was Opaekaa waterfall. We also stopped in at Walmart to purchase breakfast and other food items. (Prices are high!)

Beautiful scenery

We stopped off at Poi'pu beach and ate puka dogs for dinner. They were quite tasty! We also saw these huge sea turtles who came out to sleep on the shore.

We stayed at a property all together on Kauai. There was a 4-bedroom house as well as a garage house with one room and a pull-out bed in the sitting room. Matt and I took the garage house with my parents. We were able to do some talking and playing games at night but not much. It was tricky to adjust to the time zone change and were all so tired at night!

Day 2: We went to church first thing in the morning. It was Father's Day and all the talks were about fathers from several different members of the congregation--children to adults. The most memorable was a boy who had his father stand up to be recognized, then proceeded to share over the pulpit about his dad's farts. There was one redeeming, amazing talk from a sister in the ward who came up with an acrostic poem for the word FATHER as she talked about the qualities of a good father. Then she related those same traits to our Heavenly Father. It was powerful. While sitting in the pews waiting for church to start, Kari got a text that one of our chickens had died--Austin's chicken that he named Batman. (My nieces were feeding our chickens while we were away.) My heart hurt for a good portion of the meeting thinking about how sad Austin would be to hear the news. We didn't tell him until we got home, and he cried the whole 20-minute drive home from Sid's house and off and on throughout the day.

After church, we went to Waimea Canyon to do some hiking. 

Chickens roam around on Kauai like squirrels run around in Houston.

This was a "leisurely" hike that Clayton looked up for us to do on a Sunday. In actuality, it was a very lengthy hike with some very tricky sections. We all got sweaty!

This was the grand finale of the hike.

Sisters

Day 3: We went on a catamaran to view the Na Pali coast. Clayton and Kara opted for a helicopter ride instead. The catamaran was a lot of fun. Smooth ride out and very bumpy and wet on the way back. Lindsey got seasick. We saw some dolphins on the way out and did some snorkeling when they dropped anchor. I really enjoyed the lunch, which was a turkey, apple, jam sandwich.

The only way to access this coast is by sea or by air. Beautiful scenery.

Day 4: My favorite part of the trip was tubing through these tunnels. I thought it was so fun! We had a fantastic tour guide as well. The water was very chilly, but fortunately you adjusted to it pretty quickly.

"Butt up!" they said. So I'm squeezing all the muscles in my lower half!

We got some shave ice after tubing. It was so yummy!

After lunch, we went to Tunnels beach to do some snorkeling. Matt took to snorkeling like he was part of the water. It gave him blessed relief from the ringing in his ears, and he loved exploring. It wasn't my favorite part of the trip. Salt water constantly seeped into my goggles no matter how tight I had them. I saw some cool fish and felt like I checked off the snorkeling box after one time out.

We stopped at Queen's Bath on the way home. It had already been a long and exhausting day in the sun, and I wasn't thrilled to be stopping for another detour instead of going home. Luckily it was a short hike. Of course it was beautiful, but I just wanted to go home, shower and get into some clean and comfortable clothing.

We all planned to do a load of laundry when we got back to the rental property. That didn't play out as there was no electricity when we got there. The garage house had power, but nothing else. Everyone took cold showers in the main house and slept with windows open and the blessed sound of roosters crowing all morning starting at 4am. We slept comfortably in the garage house with fans as white noise to block out the sound of the roosters. The owners of the property refunded one day's payment.

The next morning we flew to Oahu!

End of Summer/Start of School

The lazy days of summer had to come to an end at some point.

Dog-sitting

Carter spending "quality time" with the chickens.

Bryson and his friend loved to see how many cars they could get to honk or show their muscles as they drove by. They are standing on the sign to our section of the neighborhood.

Summer also meant many games of Wingspan.

First day of school!
(Austin 1st and Bryson 4th grade)

Finishing Off the School Year

Bryson did very well in 3rd grade making the all A honor roll. Going back to school after homeschooling last year, the class he struggled in the most was Reading. I disagreed with how that teacher graded frequently throughout the year though. (Short assignments so that if you missed one question you got a B, not taking enough grades, etc.) Overall, he transitioned very well though.

Bryson got the Payday Award for always working hard each day.

Austin graduated from Kindergarten. For the most part, he thought school was only okay. He's a smarty pants so the work was too easy for him, and he was often bored. But he was able to help other students when needed and enjoyed getting to know new friends. Just like my other boys, he was very well-behaved at school and never stepped a toe out of line.

Austin got the Writing Wizard award because he enjoyed writing stories when he had free time. He's the first of my boys to really love writing. We will see if that continues. Austin is also very meticulous about his handwriting and tries to write his letters extra neat.

Caleb had his Suzuki Book 6 party mid May. He spent more time perfecting his songs this time, and his very difficult songs sounded absolutely gorgeous. I was so proud of him! We invited a bigger crowd this time, and many people heard his impressive talent. He continues to practice daily and work very hard at developing this skill. I quit when I got to 9th grade, so I'm glad he's not following in my footsteps.

In true Mom Fail fashion, I ran off to serve refreshments and neglected to get a picture of Caleb at the event. I did take some videos of his playing though.

Caleb finished up his school year with all As; his lowest final average on his report card was a 95. Next year he will try his hand at his first AP class. He improved a lot on his writing this year.

After the choir Pop Show with his tennis and choir buddy, Tyler.

Carter killed 6th grade. I don't know how much of it was his own intellect, easier teachers, or his fabulous homeschool teacher last year (wink, wink), but Carter made 6th grade look like a walk in the park. One boy and one girl are chosen for the Principal's award per hallway (3 classes) for demonstrating leadership and making good grades. Carter was picked as the boy in his hallway.

Look at this kid's report card! I don't know how he could have done any better with his final averages as a 99 or 100 in every class!!! He was also one of ten 6th grade students who passed the CBE test and will skip 8th grade math next year and move straight to Algebra. I'll help fill in any gaps as needed. He's excited to move on to junior high next year and play football.

I'm so proud of how hard all my boys worked this past school year! Matt and I feel so lucky and blessed to be their parents.

2nd Sprint Triathlon

I completed my 2nd sprint triathlon! My goal was to improve my time from last year, but the training process didn't look like it would yield the results I wanted. Last year I swam a 6:40, biked at 15.5mph, and ran a 7:53 pace for the 5K. I knew I could improve the swim easily, but my bike pace was around 15-15.3mph and my run average was stuck at an 8:15 mile pace during the months leading up to the race. I was super frustrated because I had been training all year, including hills and speed training on the bike, yet my times were not improving! (I even had new bike pedals with cages for my feet, which was supposed to help improve my time using different leg muscles.) There wasn't much more I could do about the biking, so I started focusing on the running. After I ran 3 or 4 miles outside, I started coming home and doing mile sprints on the treadmill while slowly increasing my pace. That helped a lot!

A week before the race, there was a 5K race in my neighborhood that I signed the whole family up for. There was a one-mile option as well, and the family bailed out on me and picked that over the 5K. My race was first, and I came in 6th place. Three high school track kids beat me, one guy, and a 6th grader, so I was the first woman to cross the finish line. :) My pace was a 7:35 average per mile, which I was super proud of. It gave me a lot of confidence going into my sprint triathlon the following week!

Caleb came in 1st place right behind the pacers at a 5:55 mile. (He asked his high school track buddies that beat me in the 5K to pace him in the mile run at a 5:30 pace.) Carter was a minute behind Caleb in 2nd place. Bryson finished around 9 minutes and Matt and Austin ran together at a 9:30 pace.

My sprint triathlon the following week began bright and early waking up at 4:15 and leaving the house at 5am. The race started at 7am....for some people. The swim is first, which took place in a high school natatorium as a snake swim. It takes time to cycle everyone through the swim. Last year I waited 30 minutes before I got in the water, which was frustrating, but I just chatted with a friend until it was time to start. This year I waited over an hour! It was so difficult to see people finishing the race before I even started! Plus the wind and the heat picked up the later it got in the morning and my adrenaline decreased. Everyone was supposed to "self seed" at the start of the race, which worked okay last year, but this year there were more participants and people started jumping in line because they got tired of waiting. So when I finally did get in the water, I had to pass 5 or 6 people during the swim, which is very difficult to do in a snake swim! It was not the best start to the race, and I was frustrated to know that an improvement in my swim time likely wouldn't happen after all since I had to stop swimming at one point stuck behind 4 people in front of me.

The bike portion was on the feeder of a 4-lane road. I passed 10 roadkill and had to watch for sharp rocks and glass the whole time, so it was a little nerve-racking.

It is SO hard to run after biking. Your legs feel like jello for the first quarter mile, and it improves only slightly from there. 

About to cross the finish line. I was grateful to be done!

Though it was a rough start to my race, I actually improved in every single area! My swim time was a 6:15, biking averaged 15.9mph, and my running pace was a 7:44 per mile. I was thrilled and exhilarated! I'm glad that I did it again to prove to myself that I could beat my time, but I don't plan on continuing. I can't do much more about improving my swim and my run. The only area that I could take off significant time is my biking...and the only way to do that is to drop thousands (ballpark 10 grand) into a new road bike. I can think of many other options for that money! So I am hanging up my swim cap and goggles. I loved achieving something that was scary and different than anything I've done. It was fun to pursue a goal and succeed this year. I'm going to keep the cycling going as part of my workouts since it's actually something I enjoy!

Spring Baseball Season

Bryson has played with the same teammates for 3 or 4 seasons of baseball. Unfortunately for spring season, the majority of the team chose to pay select ball. (Quite pricey and games on Sunday) He had two of the same teammates, but otherwise played on a new team with a new coach this season. There were several things about the coaching that were frustrating, but we appreciate him stepping up to lead the team. Unlike previous seasons where Bryson was middle-of-the-pack, on this new team, he was one of the strongest players. While this meant the team struggled a bit more, Bryson got some new opportunities such as pitching regularly. He improved a lot and had his hardest hits this season. Bryson had three in-the-park homeruns due to hits that went all the way to the fence. (The hits should have been triples but there were throwing errors on the other team.) Matt thinks Bryson has the best potential of all our boys in baseball.

Bryson on the mound pitching

Because Matt coaches Carter's baseball team, I'm Bryson's buddy at all his games.

Carter had a fantastic season. Matt says Carter has a runner's instinct that you can't teach easily. He knows how to run the bases and what to do without a coach telling him. He played shortstop and also pitched 3 or 4 times. He batted first in the lineup because he almost always got on base.

A rare moment of Carter not doing what he's supposed to while waiting to bat. :)

Matt coached his team to another championship win this season.

We had fun watching the championship game because it was a nail biter!

Baseball is a huge commitment, but it's something that our boys love and Matt loves coaching. It has been fun to watch them pursue something they enjoy and also improve.

Other April Activities

Carter's band got first place in a competition.

A mega egg from one of our chickens. We we were hoping it would be a double-yolker (only has happened once), but it was just super large.

Trying crawfish for Austin and Bryson's first time. Matt spent 4 hours in the hot sun flipping hamburgers for this stake activity. The rest of us went to Capri's baptism.

Ward father/son campout (which means I got the night to myself!)
Austin with his good buddy, Grant, at the campout.

Matt's jeep has a tent attached to the back. Matt camped outside with Austin and Bryson one night in April at their request. Maybe it's an eyesore, but the boys love doing this on occasion!

Easter Festivities

Neighborhood Easter egg hunt

We did a family service activity for the refugees in the downtown area. Their religious beliefs are different than ours, but we provided an opportunity to get out of their apartment and participate in some fun outdoor activities.

Ariane hosted Easter dinner/egg hunt this year. One of the activities we did for the kids is each kid used peeps to create a story from the scriptures. Bryson did Gethsemane, Caleb did Nephi tied up on the ship, and Carter helped Luman do a scene of King Benjamin preaching on the tower.

Egg hunt afterwards